June 17, 2010 – A recent merger between a West Midlands based Industrial Mail Order Catalogue and its European counterpart is already proving successful by providing improved product selection and faster response times for its clients. The partnership, between Aldridge based Lones (UK) Ltd who trade as Workplace Products and the Scandinavian company AJ Produkter AB, also looks to reap untold benefits for the area’s recession-hit manufacturing industry.

The partnership, which has a combined turnover of £120million, has already resulted in an improved service, not only in the UK but across the continent, as Workplace Products Managing Director Neil Higgitt explained: “Our customers are already benefiting from the partnership between the AJ Group and ourselves. Product selection has increased dramatically and we now have access to stock from across Europe; our warehouse in Sweden carries £5.5 million of stock alone, it is also our intention to expand our operation in Aldridge. The knock on effect to this is that delivery time in the UK will be reduced with many products on a next day delivery.”

The combined group owns manufacturing facilities in Slovakia, Poland and Latvia and are now looking to increase manufacturing in the UK; this will include acquiring manufacturing plants in the UK

“It’s an area that we’re keen to expand upon with our European partners,” said Neil. “Our plan is to help UK manufactures in proposing UK manufactured products for our European wide catalogue; we’re currently in negotiations with at least six manufacturers in the West Midlands. This is an ideal opportunity for us to champion UK manufacturing and hopefully we will soon reach a deal where we can make a substantial investment, helping to lower unemployment figures and boost the local economy.”